This is Ozarks at Large for Monday, March 23. Thank you so much for being with us this past weekend. The Medium in Springdale hosted the Northwest Arkansas Fat Fashion Show as part of its 2025-2026 Creative Exchange Fund. Sophia Nourani brings us this postcard.
The NWA Fat Fashion Show was well attended, and models walked across the stage throughout the show to overwhelming applause. After the show, models, vendors, attendees and designers were pleased by the event and the turnout.
"I saw when they posted about auditions for it, and I had a couple of friends that I really wanted to model in it. My friend Rachel did model in it. They auditioned and I'm just so proud of them and I'm so excited to see it have such a big turnout, because it deserves it. There are so many wonderful artists that deserve a platform. And the Medium did something so cool with the Creative Exchange Fund. Everyone looks beautiful."
"I saw people sharing about it and I thought it was really important to be here because I'm a big believer that confidence is like power. Seeing that so many people looked so confident tonight and they had such amazing outfits on — I just thought that was a really great thing to support and I'm glad I came."
"I'm one of the models. I just loved this. We were able to find community with all of each other and kind of make art together with both the designers and everybody else."
"My favorite part was when everyone was getting dressed up and the adrenaline was really high, but everyone was helping each other so much and everyone was just going around going, 'You're so pretty. You're so pretty. You're so beautiful.' I loved it. It was really scary. And then I cried really hard. It was so much joy. I was so happy to see this many people who just wanted to see beautiful fat bodies."
"Tonight has been amazing. I've had to stop myself from crying a million times. It's so emotional. Like they said, there's no fat liberation without all liberation. And that's what tonight was — a step in that direction. And it felt like that. There were almost 300 people outside here to support us, and that says so much to me. It's been life-changing. I was so nervous right before, but as soon as I walked out, all of it went away. I was excited. I wanted to show off my outfit every way I could. I was doing everything for a scream and a clap."
"I'm here with Fits and Bean, which is my partner's jewelry business. We are here today to raise money for their top surgery fund. All of the proceeds raised from the jewelry they created tonight go towards helping them get top surgery. And I think that speaks to the intersectional dynamic that's here. It's about fat liberation. It's about trans liberation. None of us are free unless all of us are free. And so to have so many folks in every body, in every design, come here and be in community together — I think that is really beautiful and really needed. I'm happy to be here and I'm really excited about this." — Leah Juliet
Model Amelia Holliday talked through the run of the show and what the process was like.
"I feel like we did speed-run it a bit. We all hopped on board. This is a relatively short amount of time to plan a show in, but everybody was really on their game with getting it together. We had a few rehearsals and we were all present and ran through everything top to bottom. We had several photo shoots as well, and then we had a hang-out where we got to eat lunch at Handshake in the library and just spend some time together. A good mix of getting to spend time together and also getting our stuff done and getting to the point. I was nervous right beforehand because I get nervous right beforehand. And then as soon as I stepped out from behind the curtain, I did not feel nervous. And as soon as I stepped off the stage, I was like, when can we do that again?"
Co-producer of the show, Katherine Fitzwilson, says they hope to continue doing more events like these in the future.
"I'm feeling so happy, so elated. It just felt really sweet to see it come to life and to hear everybody cheer. Everyone was so loud and excited and it was exactly what we hoped it would be and maybe more. We have just been so inspired watching not just fat people get spaces where they're celebrated, but watching people swap numbers and talk about places they get clothes and actually finding community with one another. We just want to keep that going. We're thinking something might happen in the summer. Who knows?"
Pictures are available here.
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